Day Eleven

Today Alan Greenwood led a walk from Jumble Hole Road up to Stoodley Pike. It’s been a funny old day with rain followed by sun followed by rain. They probably got buffeted about up there, got wet, got dry again in the sunshine. I hope they had a fantastic time.

A couple of years ago Johnny and Bet and I set off on a 22 mile walk – the route of The Hebden, a walk organised by the Long Distance Walkers Association (Calderdale Branch). We had entered the walk/run and were doing a recce. When we set off it was raining. It rained all the way to Old Town and Peckett Well, and even harder through the Crags. The paths on the way up to Slack were streams in full flow, and by the time we got up to Blackshaw Head we were heads down in driving horizontal rain, right across the top of the hill with no protection or shelter in any direction. The fields were a soggy mess beneath our feet and Bet looked miserable.

It was the first time we’d been to Jumble Hole Clough. You slide down the fields from Blackshaw Head, to some steep and precarious steps which lead to a bridge over the stream. It was terrifying. The stream was a raging force hurtling under the bridge, and the path was slippery and unstable. We crossed and wound our way down past the ruins of Jumble Hole Mill, the water a thundering accompaniment below the narrow path. It was exciting, exhilarating and very, very wet.

When we reach the bottom of the hill, the junction of Jumble Hole Road and the A646, we were meant to head off up through the hills to Stoodley Pike – the route Alan Greenwood will have taken today. The rain was still lashing down. In front of us was the canal, its tow path urging us quietly to abandon our foolhardiness and return home the short way, through the bottom of the valley, sheltered by trees. We looked at each other and didn’t really need to say anything. Bet had her tail between her legs and made no complaints when we took the easy way out.

Then to top it all, she managed to fall into the canal on the way home.

We did the Hebden a few weeks later. I walked it with Bet and Johnny ran. It was a lovely day, and Jumble Hole Clough was one of the best bits then too. In fact, it’s probably one of my favourite places. At the bottom, near to where Alan G was starting his walk today, was the food stop where they served fruit cake and dripping sandwiches to keep you going on the slog up to Stoodley. I think that first time, we’d done enough dripping by then – nothing would have got us up that hill.

This afternoon Wilf ran up to Stoodley Pike with Calder Valley Fell Runners and came back covered in mud from head to toe. I’ve been at work all day, sitting at a desk in an office. It would have been nice to be walking with Alan and friends, but I was quite glad today to be warm and dry.